Social Network Analysis Theory and Practice

A. Network Fundamentals

1) Emergent Properties - whole greater than sum of parts > social structure

2) Network Node - individual, group, species, firm, sector, country, ...

3) Network Link (arc, tie, or edge) - relationship, interaction, outcome, resource or information flow, ...

4) Affiliation Network - co-membership / co-participation creates the inferred linkages

5) Non-network attributes - as independent (explanatory) or dependent variables, demographic or personality characteristics, continuous vs. categorical ...

B. Research Design / Application Considerations

1) Level of analysis - dyad (pairwise relationship), node (ego), subgroups, network

2) Importance of clearly defining network boundary, relation type, ...

3) Cross sectional vs. longitudinal studies

4) Basic Research - correlative (predictive), multivariate analysis, attributes as independent variables to explain network, network variables as explanatory variables to explain outcomes

5) Sources of Data - surveys, observation, experiments, secondary sources, electronic records, cognitive, consensus, valued, name generators, ...

6) Errors - node omission, omission of ties, false nodes and ties, non-response, attribute errors, informant accuracy, patterns, ...

7) Ethical considerations - deducing node identity and other risks

C. Network Analysis

1) Digraphs, Adjacency Matrix, and other representations for SNA - advantages of each

2) Network features - ego/altars, core, components, subgroups, n-cliques, factions, gaps, bonding and bridging ties, negative ties, isolates, clustering ...

3) Network measures of centrality - degree, betweeness, beta, closeness, eigenvector, k-step reach, ...

4) Network measures of cohesion - density, subgroups, relation to shared attributes, ...

5) Equivalence - structural, regular, profile similarity, core-periphery indices, blockmodels, ...

6) Network paths - paths, sequences, trails, walks, intermediaries, ...

7) Tie strength, reciprocity, transitivity, node filtering, attribute-based scatter plots

8) Shape measures, stage, visualizing change, application scenarios...

Social Network Analysis Applications

A. General Theoretical Concepts

1) Social Capital - as an explanatory variable in successful outcomes - function of social ties that enable resource access (Social Resource Theory), Social Learning

2) Leadership (and related centrality measures) for success, "Institutional Entrepreneur", "Network Weaver"

3) Network Maturity - Danger of the hub / spoke structure (Stage II)

4) Redundancy (many paths) increasing flows / ties / robustness

5) General resilience improvements through network structure corrections

B) Adaptive Co-Management

1) Systems Thinking - holistic problem definition, analysis, monitoring

2) Adaptive Management - SNA structural adjustments to improve adaptability

3) Co-Management - SNA for more-effective informal collaborative structures

4) Resilience - focusing on critical variables, forcing functions